This week Apple published iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura Preview pages outlining the operating system updates’ new features, including “HDR10+” support for the Apple TV app. However, MacRumors notes that all mention of the feature has been removed.
Previously, the new features’ pages had this to say: “The latest generation of high dynamic range technology is now supported in the Apple TV app.”
So what is HDR10+ and why should you care? Here’s a primer from TechRadar: There are three key HDR formats: HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision. HDR10 is ‘regular’ HDR, while HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are more advanced – if your device doesn’t support the more advanced format, it will ‘fall back’ to using HDR10 for whatever you’re watching.
Ideally, you’d always be using HDR10+ or Dolby Vision because they help your device to adjust its brightness and darkness levels throughout a movie to always give you the best contrast levels with as much detail as possible, depending on what each scene needs. Regular HDR10 sets the overall contrast levels for the whole movie, so darker and lighter scenes are all having to work within a certain envelope, so you get a bit less nuance.
The problem is that most streaming services use Dolby Vision or HDR10+, so if your device doesn’t support both, you won’t be getting the best quality from all services. We’ve been wanting Apple to support HDR10+ for a while, so that all of its HDR-ready devices can reach their full potential for watching movies, for this reason.
